I was mailed this by an industry colleague with whom I share many views on how energy is made and its future. spOILed is yet another documentary/film making the rounds following the rise of domestic onshore shale gas drilling, especially in the northeast United States shale trends. Its director, Mark Mathis, outlines his motives for making the film with an attempt at transparency on who funded it and why. The last paragraph of his statement is a philosophy absolutely critical to America’s future energy supplies and one that defies where you stand on this issue politically. Note that I agree with Mathis only if energy companies and political stakeholders are serious about an Energy transition. In other words, it’s easy to say this to justify the continuation of drilling for hydrocarbons while there are little to no real and systematic efforts being made in renewables research and development.
One of the most fascinating aspects of the making of spOILed is that I have the same end goal as biggest green energy advocate out there. We must transition AWAY FROM OIL as such a dominant fuel for transportation. The difference between us is that I am facing the REALITY that this transition will take many decades to achieve and while we’re on the way we need a LOT more oil to keep the modern world functioning.
